I was flicking back through the photos I'd taken during 2022 to try and remember what I've done throughout the year. It turns out that a lot of what I thought had occurred in 2022 was actually from 2021. In effect, the last two years seem to have blurred into one. Matters haven't been helped by not having written a retrospective at the end of 2021, so I don't have a convenient marker to separate the two.
Looking back to the end of 2020, my goals for 2021 had been to run a T-80 company in Team Yankee, play through the Smugglers' Run campaign for Black Seas, paint 1500pts for 40K, and organise a FOW ladder tournament for the club. Of these I only achieved the first: a single game with T-80s against Pelarel's Challengers in December 2021. The 40K setting simply hasn't captured my interest as much as it would need to for me to devote that much time and money to building an army and learning the rules, and it turns out FOW isn't played often enough locally to support a ladder.
Moving on to 2022, I didn't play a huge number of games during the year. Most of my games were focused around the two Flames of War tournaments that I played in.
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| Priest Kangaroos |
ValleyCon was 100pts Late War held in June. I ran a Canadian Rifle Company from D-Day: British, themed on Operation Totalize, with the gimmick being trying to run it as an artillery-centric "Always Attack" force.
Rifle Company - D-Day: British
Company HQ
Rifle Platoon (full strength)
Rifle Platoon (full strength)
6pdr Anti-tank Platoon (4 x 6pdr)
Wasp Carrier Patrol
Universal Carrier Patrol
2 x 25pdr Field Troop (4 x 25pdr each)
M10 SP Anti-tank Platoon (4 x M10 (3-inch))
Sherman OP
Relentless command card (two Rifle Platoons)
Kangaroo Transport command card (two Rifle Platoons)
Carrier Transport command card (6pdrs)
AGRA command card (eight guns)
Total Cost: 100 pts
I never wrote a review of the event, but the list was an interesting challenge. I won two games, drew two, and lost one, placing 9th out of 14. Funnily enough for a list that I had intended to attack with, my two wins were when I chose to defend due to facing large numbers of light vehicles. It definitely could attack, but really needed a third Rifle Platoon and the 17pdr version of the M10s. I'm tempted to try again at a later date, using a similar list built using Bulge: British that incorporates those lessons.
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| 6pdrs |
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| A 25pdr Battery |
The second tournament was Panzerschreck, held in July. This year it was 140pt Mid War doubles. I partnered with Bede again, and we chose to run German Panzers, built around Borgwards and Hornisse. We had decided not to take the event too seriously, hence a force deliberately built around the inefficient long-barrelled Panzer III while avoiding the underpriced Marder, however we placed 4th out of 12.
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| My Panzer IIIs in action at Panzerschreck 2022 |
I didn't do anything for Team Yankee during the year. The Russian invasion of Ukraine removed all enthusiasm for doing any further work on my Soviets. I also have concerns about the balance of the game, which heavily favours ATGMs and 1960s equipment at the expense of the 1980s/90s technology that was the main attraction of the game in the first place. The release of Nordic Forces and Free Nations 2 in 2023 might restore some interest, but until the Dynamic Points philosophy is extended to TY, there's not much that can be done to fix the balance.
I've continued writing for No Dice No Glory, and have averaged a post per month over the course of the year. A number of my pieces were related to release of the North Africa compilation for FOW:
- Comparing the British lists to their V3 versions.
- Exploring the changes to the German support tree compared to V4's Afrika Korps.
- Looking at a more competitive build of the Crusader Squadron boxed set.
Another couple of posts related to the release of Bulge: British, digging into the details of the infantry lists and the reconnaissance Command Cards.
While I expect to keep using NDNG as my main writing platform, I intend to keep this blog open as it gives me a place to post things that don't fit well with NDNG.
2022 marked my first foray into board wargaming. Malta Besieged arrived just in time for me to play it while recovering from Covid, and I also picked up a copy of The African Campaign. I can see myself playing more hex-and-counter games in future, subject to being able to find games with a strong solitaire mode. It has a significant nostalgia element, as it reminds me of the hours I spent playing Allied General as a teenager.
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| Malta Besieged |
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| The African Campaign |
I will start 2023 by running FOW for Remember December 2022. This event was delayed by a month due to many players being unavailable for the usual date of the first club meeting in December. This is going to be 85pts Late War, with forces to be built using the Bulge books.
There are a number of other events occurring during 2023, with Charicon in February (100pts Mid War), ValleyCon in April (111pts Late War), Panzerschreck in July (Late War doubles), an ADLG event planned for October, and of course RD coming around again in December. I won't be able to play in all of them, so I have a decision to make about which ones to prioritise.
The most important thing, though, is that I need to have a serious think about what I actually want to play, and try to find some focus. I've got lots of random stuff lying around, and a number of rulesets that I've never played, There are games that I'd like to play more (Fate of a Nation, ADLG, Seven Days to the River Rhine), and games that I'd like to try (for example, Lion Rampant, Blood and Steel, Iron Cross could be a good option for 28mm WW2, O Group in 15mm might provide a different experience to FOW).
With this in mind, my plan for 2023 is:
1. Have a good clear out of the random junk in the hobby cupboard.
2. Play games of two rulesets that I own but haven't played before.
3. Rebase my 28mm Impetus Italians to give me 200pts for ADLG.
4. Paint 220pts of 15mm ECW Royalists for ADLG-R.
5. Consolidate my FOW/TY collections: tidying up and offloading any forces that I'm not passionate about, and finishing off the ones that I want to keep.
That is a relatively short list that should be achievable. Let's see how we get on.
